In Honor of Today- International Day of Peace

As I was looking for a blog topic for this week’s post, I noticed in my calendar that today marks the International Day of Peace and what could possibly be a better topic piece than peace?  Not one that I could come up with.

There is so much movement and at such a fast pace that often we run by something without fully noticing it.  There is so much finger-pointing with the mindset of “I am right and therefore you are wrong” that people have forgotten how to listen.  There is so much destruction of the natural world accidentally and intentionally that finding a peaceful place to just be has become so very much harder.  There is so much, that there is not enough time for simple.

I wrote that last paragraph and had to pause afterwards because it’s so easy to get sucked into what is wrong with the world that we lose touch with the potentials. 

There are moments where people slow down.  There are moments where people behave kindly and listen to understand someone else.  There are moments where trees are planted and animals are saved.  There is so much good, that there is the possibility of full peace.

What would it take for these moments to be more than moments?  For these to be the rules rather than the exceptions?  This to me is what an international day of peace is about: finding ways to create the world we want and taking action towards that image rather than accepting the world that we have as the best we can do.  Because I’m really not sure that this is actually the best we can do.

In fact, I know that this is not the best we can do.  It’s not the best we can do because there are those moments where we glimpse something so much more.  What will it take for these moments to become the rules, rather than continuing to be the exceptions?  Often in these types of challenges, I look for the simple solutions.  And what could be simpler than looking back through some preschool and early childhood lessons?

I had the good fortune to be able to attend the Family School in Brewster, MA from the time I was two until I “graduated” kindergarten around age six.  I continued to attend Brewster Day Camp for many years after that, and returned after several years hiatus to work as a swimming instructor and lifeguard.  Even though the last time I was on staff was upwards of fifteen years ago, there are many memories that still seem like they happened yesterday.  But, I digress a bit in giving you the backstory.  Let’s get back to the main story.

Love, kindness, respect, and peace were woven through every lesson, game, and interaction.  We sang a song called “Teaching Peace” as a matter of fact.  Differences were acknowledged and welcomed, and in doing so we found out that we in fact had much more in common than we had that differentiated us.  People who looked differently than I did were just my friends, as were the people who looked similarly to the way I did.  If we can cultivate peace in early childhood, learning to play nicely together and take turns in the sandbox, surely we can remember back to those lessons and figure out how to peacefully co-exist and be friends now.  All you ever really needed to know, you learned in preschool. 

And so, on this International Day of Peace, I encourage you to find a way to make the changes within your own life that allow you to live in peace with your self and with others around you.  And then help yourself to branch out: let’s make peace the rule in all things rather than the exception we find rarely.  Finding good should not be so hard.  But we need to make sure that we put our focus on the good as this will help us to see it more often and in all things.

And so in the spirit of the early childhood lessons of the Family School and Brewster Day Camp and in honor of the teachers and counselors who work/have worked there, I wish you courage, hope, good spirit, and peace in your day and in your journey.